We study a system of
N noninteracting spinless fermions trapped in a confining potential, in arbitrary dimensions
d and arbitrary temperature
T. The presence of the confining trap breaks the translational invariance and introduces an edge where the average density of fermions vanishes. Far from the edge, near the center of the trap (the so-called ``bulk regime''), where the fermions do not feel the curvature of the trap, physical properties of the fermions have traditionally been understood using the local density (or Thomas-Fermi) approximation. However, these approximations drastically fail near the edge where the density vanishes and thermal and quantum fluctuations are thus enhanced. The main goal of this paper is to show that, even near the edge, novel universal properties emerge, independently of the details of the shape of the confining potential. We present a unified framework to investigate both the bulk and the edge properties of the fermions. We show that for large
N, these fermions in a confining trap, in arbitrary dimensions and at finite temperature, form a determinantal point process. As a result, any
n-point correlation function, including the average density profile, can be expressed as an $n\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}n$ determinant whose entry is called the kernel, a central object for such processes. Near the edge, we derive the large-
N scaling form of the kernels, parametrized by
d and
T. In
d=1 and
T=0, this reduces to the so-called Airy kernel, that appears in the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) of random matrix theory. In
d=1 and
T>0 we show a remarkable connection between our kernel and the one appearing in the (
1+1)-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation at finite time. Consequently, our result provides a finite-
T generalization of the Tracy-Widom distribution, that describes the fluctuations of the position of the rightmost fermion at
T=0, or those of the largest single-fermion momentum. In
d>1 and $T\ensuremath{\ge}0$, while the connection to GUE no longer holds, the process is still determinantal whose analysis provides a new class of kernels, generalizing the
1d Airy kernel at
T=0 obtained in random matrix theory. Some of our finite-temperature results should be testable in present-day cold-atom experiments, most notably our detailed predictions for the temperature dependence of the fluctuations near the edge.
Abstract We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of noninteracting fermions in one dimension and in continuum space, in the presence of a delta impurity potential at the origin whose strength g is varied at time t = 0. The system is prepared in its ground state with g = g 0 = +∞, with two different densities and Fermi wave-vectors k L and k R on the two half-spaces x > 0 and x < 0 respectively. It then evolves for t > 0 as an isolated system, with a finite impurity strength g . We compute exactly the time dependent density and current. For a fixed position x and in the large time limit t → ∞, the system reaches a non-equilibrium stationary state (NESS). We obtain analytically the correlation kernel, density, particle current, and energy current in the NESS, and characterize their relaxation, which is algebraic in time. In particular, in the NESS, we show that, away from the impurity, the particle density displays oscillations which are the non-equilibrium analog of the Friedel oscillations. In the regime of ‘rays’, x / t = ξ fixed with x , t → ∞, we compute the same quantities and observe the emergence of two light cones, associated to the Fermi velocities k L and k R in the initial state. Interestingly, we find non trivial quantum correlations between two opposite rays with velocities ξ and − ξ which we compute explicitly. We extend to a continuum setting and to a correlated initial state the analytical methods developed in a recent work of Ljubotina, Sotiriadis and Prosen, in the context of a discrete fermionic chain with an impurity. We also generalize our results to an initial state at finite temperature, recovering, via explicit calculations, some predictions of conformal field theory in the low energy limit.
We consider the one-dimensional gas of fermions with spin S interacting via an attractive δ -function potential using the Bethe Ansatz solution. In zero magnetic field the atoms form bound states of N = 2 S + 1 fermions, i.e. generalized Cooper states with each atom having a different spin component. For low energy excitations the system is a Luttinger liquid and is properly described by a conformal field theory with conformal charge c = 1 . The linear dispersion of a Luttinger liquid is asymptotically exact in the low-energy limit where the band curvature terms in the dispersion are irrelevant. For higher energy excitations, however, the spectral function displays deviations in the neighborhood of the single-particle (hole) energy, which can be described by an effective X-ray edge type model. Using the Bethe Ansatz solution we obtain expressions for the critical exponents for the single-particle (hole) Green's function. This model can be relevant in the context of ultracold atoms with effective total spin S confined to an elongated optical trap.
Ground-state properties of a single impurity in a one-dimensional Fermi gas are investigated in uniform and trapped geometries. The energy of a trapped system is obtained (i) by generalizing the McGuire expression from a uniform to trapped system (ii) within the local density approximation (iii) using the perturbative approach in the case of a weakly interacting impurity and (iv) diffusion Monte Carlo method. We demonstrate that there is a closed formula based on the exact solution of the homogeneous case which provides a precise estimation for the energy of a trapped system even for a small number of fermions and arbitrary coupling constant of the impurity. Using this expression, we analyze energy contributions from kinetic, interaction, and potential components, as well as spatial properties such as the system size and the pair-correlation function. Finally, we calculate the frequency of the breathing mode. Our analysis is directly connected and applicable to the recent experiments in microtraps.
Abstract We review recent advances in the theory of trapped fermions using techniques borrowed from random matrix theory (RMT) and, more generally, from the theory of determinantal point processes. In the presence of a trap, and in the limit of a large number of fermions , the spatial density exhibits an edge, beyond which it vanishes. While the spatial correlations far from the edge, i.e. close to the center of the trap, are well described by standard many-body techniques, such as the local density approximation (LDA), these methods fail to describe the fluctuations close to the edge of the Fermi gas, where the density is very small and the fluctuations are thus enhanced. It turns out that RMT and determinantal point processes offer a powerful toolbox to study these edge properties in great detail. Here we discuss the principal edge universality classes, that have been recently identified using these modern tools. In dimension d = 1 and at zero temperature T = 0, these universality classes are in one-to-one correspondence with the standard universality classes found in the classical unitary random matrix ensembles: soft edge (described by the ‘Airy kernel’) and hard edge (described by the ‘Bessel kernel’) universality classes. We further discuss extensions of these results to higher dimensions and to finite temperature. Finally, we discuss correlations in the phase space, i.e. in the space of positions and momenta, characterized by the so called Wigner function.
In the framework of exactly solvable quantum many-body systems we study models of interacting spin one-half Fermions in one dimension. The first part deals with systems of spin one-half Fermions which interact via repulsive contact interaction. A reformulation of the Bethe-Ansatz solvable many-body wave function is presented. This simplifies considerably the calculations for the highly imbalanced case, where very few particles of one species (minority Fermions) are present. For the other particle species (majority Fermions) the thermodynamic limit is taken. We assume the majority Fermions to be in the ground state such that their non-interacting momentum distribution is a Fermi-sea. Upon this we consider excitations where the particles of the minority species may occupy an arbitrary state within the Fermi-sea. In the case of only a single minority Fermion, the many-body wave function can be expressed as a determinant. This allows us to derive exact thermodynamic expressions for several expectation values as well as for the density-density correlation function. Moreover it is possible to find closed expressions for the single particle Green's function. All of the above mentioned quantities show a non-trivial dependence on the minority particle's momentum. In particular the Green's function in the Tonks-Girardeau regime of hardcore interaction is shown to undergo a transition from the one of impenetrable Bosons to that of free Fermions as the extra particle's momentum varies from the core to the edge of the Fermi-sea. This transition becomes manifest in an algebraic asymptotic decay of the Green's function. If two minority Fermions are present, the many-body wave function turns out to be more complicated. Nevertheless it is possible to derive exact expressions for the two and the three particle density-density correlation functions. Furthermore we calculate the system's total energy and based on that, identify terms which have a natural interpretation as effective interaction energy for the two minority Fermions in the presence of the Fermi-sea. The second part is devoted to the study of one-dimensional systems consisting of two fermionic particle species with different masses. We show that for specific kinds of interaction potentials and for certain relations between the masses and the coupling constants, the particle creation and annihilation operators of such a system can be constructed exactly.